Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) typically report cognitive problems, and they state that these deficits are disturbing in everyday life. Despite these substantial subjective complaints by FM patients, very few studies have addressed objectively the effect of such aversive states on neuropsychological performance. In this study we aimed to examine possible impairment of executive function and decision-making in a sample of 36 women diagnosed with FM and 36 healthy women matched in age, education, and socio-economic status. We contrasted performance of both groups on two measures of executive functioning: the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), which assesses cognitive flexibility skills, and the Iowa Gambling Tasks (IGT; original and variant versions), which assess emotion-based decision-making. We also examined the relationship between executive function performance and pain experience, and between executive function and personality traits of novelty-seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence (measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised). Results showed that on the WCST, FM women showed poorer performance than healthy comparison women on the number of categories and non-perseverative errors, but not on perseverative errors. FM patients also showed altered learning curve in the original IGT (where reward is immediate and punishment is delayed), suggesting compromised emotion-based decision-making; but not in the variant IGT (where punishment is immediate but reward is delayed), suggesting hypersensitivity to reward. Personality variables were very mildly associated with cognitive performance in FM women.

No abstract

Chronic consumption of several drugs of abuse (cannabis, stimulants, opioids) has been associated with the presence of neuropsychological impairments in a broad range of functions. Nevertheless, in recent years neuropsychological research on substance abuse has focused on the study of impairments in the executive functions linked to the prefrontal cortex and their influence on the personality, cognitions, and behaviors of the substance abusers. The aim of our review is, first, to summarize the main neuropsychological impairments shown by classic studies, as well as these new discoveries in executive functioning; second, to consider the mediating role of neuropsychological status on treatment outcomes and analyze the impact of these impairments in clinical practice with drug addicts; and third, to review the principal methodological challenges associated with research in the field of the neuropsychology of substance abuse. We also highlight the convenience of intervening in those functions most relevant to the abusers' persistence in consumption and risk of relapse.

No abstract

Nomophobia is defined as the fear of being out of mobile phone contact and is considered to be a phobia of the modern age. The current study set out to establish the relationship between temperament and personality and the development of nomophobia. The sample was composed of 968 participants selected from the Andalusian population, of which there were 182 males and 785 females aged from 23.19 years. The instruments used were the Questionnaire to Assess Nomophobia (QANIP; Olivencia-Carrión et al., 2018) and the Temperament and Character Inventory Revised (TCI-R; Cloninger et al., 1993). We found that cooperation is a characteristic that significantly reduces nomophobic levels, particularly for the two factors of Mobile Phone Addiction and Negative Consequences. Furthermore, Reward Dependence appears to be positively related to two of the factors involved in nomophobia, namely Mobile Phone Addiction and Loss of Control, suggesting a relationship between Nomophobia and personality. These findings are discussed in terms of their usefulness for identifying the personality predictors of nomophobia in order to develop preventive and intervention strategies.